LAS VEGAS, NEV.—In what’s becoming a yearly tradition for Ars, we met up with Austin-based TrackingPoint at CES to see what was new in the world of “Precision Guided Firearms”—the term the company uses to refer to its Linux-powered rifles. Last year, TrackingPoint had just taken the wraps off of its AR-15 PGF (which we got to shoot a few months later ), and this year we got to take a peek at a new prototype weapon that can accurately put rounds on targets up to a mile away—targets that can be moving up to 30 miles per hour. Dubbed the “Mile Maker,” the prototype was described by TrackingPoint representative Anson Gordon as “mostly” representative of the final product. The weapon at least for now is built around an enormous, enormously heavy, custom-milled steel barrel, which fires what TrackingPoint is calling “338TP”—a round somewhat similar to .338 Lapua Magnum but with some customized attributes. The company decided to continue on with their own cartridges for the longer-range rifle instead of moving up to a bigger round (like .50 BMG) because of the superior ballistics of the .338 bullet over the bigger .50 round. Lee Hutchinson TrackingPoint’s “Mile Maker” prototype. 7 more images in gallery Previously the longest range TrackingPoint’s weapons could accurately hit was about 1,200 yards with the company’s XM1 bolt-action rifle; the “Mile Maker” adds 600 effective yards onto the range of the XM1 by using different rounds, a longer barrel, and most importantly, updated software in the computerized tracking scope. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments
See more here:
TrackingPoint shows off the “Mile Maker,” a rifle with 1,800-yard range
Say what you will about the quality of coffee that comes out of pod-based machines like the Keurig, the machines have caught on like wildfire. They’re fast, they’re easy to use, and you can instantly brew up almost flavor or type of coffee you like. And soon, dinner prep might be just as easy as using a Keurig machine, if the ambitious creators of the Cooki are able to make their machine a reality. Read more… 
It turns out there are still some ways to improve a USB flash drive that don’t involve just cramming more storage inside. The iStick Pro , coming sometime in March of this year, features a Lightning connector on one end for attaching to iOS devices, and a wonderful transforming USB/microUSB connector on the other making it also compatible with laptops and Android devices. Read more… 
At one time when all you needed to connect was a couple of laptops, a cheap wireless router would more than suffice for most homes. But these days, when there’s everything from phones to tablets to TVs relying on your Wi-Fi network, it makes sense to splurge on your hardware. And D-Link’s new 11AC Ultra Performance Series routers promise speeds of up to 5.6 Gbps optimized for the myriad of different devices constantly hopping on and off your network. Read more… 
The ingenious twig-burning folks at BioLite have done it again. Their latest, the NanoGrid, is a combo battery pack and lighting system for the outdoors. Now you can charge your gadgets and light up your campsite with the power of a single wood stove. Read more… 
